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Thursday, September 30, 2010

I thought I would share some photos mom and I took around campus last year, since our flower pictures are on mom's big external at home and I just have my baby external with me.
I entered a couple of these photos in our Alumni Associations calendar contest last year and one was selected for the 2010 calendar, which made me feel pretty good.
I hope you enjoy our lovely campus!

Monday, September 27, 2010

This weekend was a blast as usual. If mom and I haven't said it enough we will say it again, "WE LOVE THIS ART FESTIVAL!". I think we both are already counting down until next year's festival again, but I am sure Joe and Dawn are not; they are trying to rest up from Saturday and Sunday. They both did an excellent job and big shout outs to them both!

Saturday was just plain gorgeous weather. It was a little nippy in the shade but that soon changed with the sun came around out of the trees and hit our booth. Sunday started out really nice and sunny and then the sun went away and was really chilly. I had to even get the quilt out of the car for mom because she was cold, and mom is never cold. It is usually me wrapped up in all of our quilts bitching that it is cold. The sun did finally come out again when we were tearing down. That didn't stop people from coming out though. Have I said that I love this art festival!!!!

I am just going to show the pictures and let you enjoy them.

Our Booth From Where We Sit

Bowl Side

Necklace Side

Echo Marking Territory in our Booth

Mom Hanging Jewelry

Booths From Across The Pond

Booths Located Behind Us

Front Side Booths (Blacksmith)

Bird Rescue Booth

The Other Blacksmith

Hobie

Pond and Grapes

I could add more and more pictures, but I think these photos show you what went on this weekend. Of course I didn't take any pictures of the mad house within the winery for the wine tasting and buying of wine slushies. Oh, and mom and I only had one wine slushie this year, can you believe that? Of course Sunday was too cold to be drinking anything cold, but still I can't get over us only having one wine slushie.

Oh, and we did get the article that mom was interviewed for. I am going to try and scan the article and upload it to blogger. I think mom did really well, though they did misquote her on one thing, but that is pretty good.

I have to end with one more photograph. This is a picture of the sunset last night from mom's front driveway. The clouds were stunning and I had to share.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Mom and I are preparing to head out to Sleepy Creek Vineyards for the second day of the sale. The first day of the art festival went really well. I have lots of picutes, but those will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to be posted. We didn't get home until almost 9:00pm last night and I just went home, took a shower, crashed on the couch with the TV going until almost midnight and then finally woke up and went to bed.

Yesterday was well worth being tired! Joe and Dawn put on a great festival and the customers were wonderful and a lot of people had nice things to say about our work. What is really awesome is that our "Sun Flare" and "Walk in the Woods" necklaces sold. We had a lot of our stainless steel necklaces sell and a few bowls. A woman who has bought a bowl each year stopped buy to get her fix for this year. She bought our "Holey Bowley" bowl. She is just like mom, she has to try each bowl in her hand to make sure it feels right. Mom does that also when she is looking at glass or ceramic bowls and vases.

Oh, update on the external hard drive: it is kaput! They were not able to retrieve anything off the hard drive. I am bummed but at least not ALL photographs were on there. I am slowly moving all of our family photos onto Flickr, in case our back up external hard drive decides to die on us, at least we have those photos stored somewhere else.

I hope you all have a great weekend like we are. Take care and photos will be posted as soon as possible.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

I had to share these photos from last night; if you didn't already know it was the Harvest Moon and the autumnal equinox, how cool is that! The moon was also gorgeous this morning, there were wispy clouds below and over the moon. Don't worry I was paying attention to the road as I was driving!

I thought I would share some photographs from last years show. The show is so relaxing and it is neat seeing the customers walk around with wine slushies, wine bottles and glasses of wine in their hands enjoying the art booths! This is the third year for the show and each year just gets better and better. Joe and Dawn do a fabulous job and they both work their butts off!

Entrance to the Winery

People Wine Tasting

People Walking Around

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Booths by the Pond

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Grape Vines

Barn through the Trees

This is a very enjoyable weekend and mom and I are so looking forward to it. Like I said, if you happen to be near Danville or Champaign, Illinois, I highly recommend stopping by the vineyard. There will be art booths, wine, food and lots of fun!

Don't worry, I will have more pictures to post on Monday or Tuesday. I am so excited for this weekend, if you couldn't tell!!!!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Ok, I am sure you're asking yourself, "What does she mean "Waxy?". There is a story to this and I will explain later on in the blog.

The Pack of My Car

This is a photo of the back of my car packed to the gills, though this is better then some of the other shows with the car packed. I think we, which I mean mom, is getting better at packing the car. It also helps I have images of previous packs where we can look at it and see what we did before. Thank goodness mom can pack because I sure as heck can't! The one down side is that passenger seat is pulled all the way forward and mom's knees are in the dashboard. Thank goodness she is short!

Full Booth

The art show, "Art on the Wabash", for us was a great success. We sold a lot of our stainless steel necklaces, several bracelets, one of our more elaborate necklaces and a few of our bowls. I was very happy with the crowd, even though it started out overcast and there were some sprinkles.

Bowl Side

The only bad episode, during the whole show, was I messed up a credit card payment and that threw me off the rest of the day. This is the second show mom and I have used the credit card machine and we both still panic when we have to use it (ok, I am the one that panics). I did great with our first sale, which the customer used a credit card, and I thought to myself "I can do this!" Then the second sale was a customer who bought our wolf plate for her son and I ran the credit card and then all hell broke lose. I missed keyed the amount and I heard what the computer said and my stomach dropped to my toes. The customer was very patient with me and mom while we fixed the issue and I felt so bad for her. I was shaking the whole time while trying to fix my mistake. I hate, hate, hate making a mistake with money!

When mom and I do shows we try and wear a piece of our jewelry. This show I decided to wear the Splendor necklace, because I am not ready to part with this necklace. We had a lot of nice compliments over the necklace and I had fun explaining how it was made and who made the beads - shout out to Kelley! I did have one woman who asked how much we would sell it for and if it was alright if she tried it on. Mom and I told her the amount and I think she would have bought it right there if she could. The necklace did look really good on her, but she ended up buying a different necklace. Mom said, "You are glad she bought something else aren't you" and I said "Yes, I am not ready to part with this yet." So, I think we are going to make another necklace like Splendor and put that one up for sale and I am going to keep this one for myself. I just can't part with the necklace. I love Kelley's beads and I love how the bird pendant came out and it just makes me happy. Oh well.

Necklace Side

Ok, the wax story. When mom and I do outside shows we have two citranella candles with us to ward off the bugs. After being in the army and going to the field I am all for not having bugs around me! Mom and I had the candles burning the whole time, so there was a nice puddle of wax in each container. It was the end of the day and we had about half an hour before the end of the show. We were running a credit card for a customer and we finished the transaction and the customer left. Mom looked down at the knuckle buster and noticed we still had the customers credit card, mom panicked which in turn made me panic when she said go find the customer. I turned around and went to run off when I knocked over the candle and I had wax go down my leg and into my shoe. Needless to say I was yelling "Hot, Hot, Hot!!!!!". There is only one time I tried waxing my legs and that is nightmare I never wanted to repeat! I got the wax off and I wasn't burned, but let me tell you that really woke me up! Currently my shoe and sock are in the freezer and I need to get them out so I can chip the wax off both of them.

Customer and Screen with Necklaces and Earrings

Mom and I did have two photos of our stuff in our local newspaper, Journal and Courier. We are photo number one and photo number five. Photo one is a picture of our "Happy/Sad" face necklace, "Walk in the Woods" necklace and our purple necklace. Photo number five is a picture of two customers looking at our necklaces on the screen.

This weekend is our favorite art show at Sleepy Creek Vineyards. This is their third annual Salt Fork River At Festival. Mom and I have participated in this festival since the beginning and we both love it. I will find images and post them from last year. It is such a great place to be. So if you located around Champaign or Danville, IL area you all should come out this weekend. Oh, and mom was interviewed for the Champaign newspaper, the reporter mom talked to is suppose to bring several hard copies, and I would love to see what she wrote about the art festival and if she used anything that mom had to say.

Update on the external hard drive. It is at Best Buy right now and they are trying to retrieve all the photos. I am hoping I will have an update on the process tomorrow or Friday. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
Have a great Wednesday everyone!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Well, I had this nice post idea I wanted to do today, but that was shot all to hell. I feel like crying right now. I was working on resizing photographs when all of sudden Photoshop locked up and then I couldn't get to my external hard drive. So, I shut it all down and when I tried to open my external hard drive: Corrupt and Unreadable.

Yes, that sick feeling came to my stomach. I went to my laptop - same thing. I haven't backed up this external in about a month and now I am paying for it. The beads I sent to Lori for Cup of Bead Soup - photos are gone; photos of the flower pictures I took gone; photos I have taken of all of our new stuff - gone; and who else knows what I had on that drive that is now gone. We have a show tomorrow and everything is packed up, so I can't take new photographs.

Ok - enough crying here. I can post some of the stuff I wanted to post about at least.
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Hummingbird

﻿This morning right, before mom and I started to finish off the inventorying, we both heard a buzzing. We looked up and there was a hummingbird buzzing away in the garage. It was so cool.

During the inventorying process I was blog hopping; mom would be doing something and I would hop over to blog to see what was going on. While I was on Lori's blog, Pretty Things, I was reading the comments when I came to Jane Perala's comments and I had to go to her blog. Am I ever glad that I did. I am lusting over the beads she posted on Friday's post. Aren't her beads devine. I had to email her and find out if she was selling them - me want! I had drool all over the keyboard, which made it difficult to do the inventory, but it was sure worth it!!! You can see more of her beads for sale on her Etsy site. Check it out because it is so worth it!

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Misty Cedars by Jane Perala

﻿﻿ Once mom and I got the inventorying done we headed over to my cousin's house because her husband picked up a cutter for us. That is one of the major tools we still needed to finish off the studio in the garage. We need two more big piece items and then I think we are set - a nice torch and a rolling mill. I still would like some stamping tools and dapping tools, but that can wait.
Here is our new cutter.

New Cutter

Me Using the Cutter

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Copper after being cut

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I did want to show you what I cooked for our lunch/dinner, but of course it was on the external hard drive that crashed and burned - sick feeling is slowly subsiding. I made potato and cheese soup, which I have not made in about two years. It was a beautiful picture of the soup all plated with bread as a side dish. Oh well, you are going to have to use your imagination for this. It was damn good let me tell you!

Stuff to Pack for Show

Tomorrow we have a show at Art on the Wabash. This is the fifth year for the show and our first time in the show. Both mom and I are excited, but scared. We have two friends who have been in the show and they say it is great. The above picture is of all the stuff that needs to get backed into my Toyota Rav4. It is a good thing mom knows how to pack and pack well otherwise we would probably be taking two cars instead of one.

That is it for tonight. I am going to post this, help mom load up my car and then go home and cry in my pillow for awhile. Cross your fingers for us for nice weather and a great showing at tomorrow's Art on the Wabash.
Have a great rest of the weekend!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Today is going to be a "quiet" flower Wednesday. Yesterday I was not at work because of a migraine and I still have a little guy, with a big hammer, pounding on my head right now. Mom and I were able to inventory some of the jewelry on Monday. We need to finish up with the bowls and the necklaces. We also have to price the stuff mom made this past weekend. I hate doing that part because I am never sure what to price the jewelry at. I sometimes feel I am pricing it to high and sometimes to low. I think that is why mom and I get on each others nerves during inventorying, the pricing.
Ok, enough of that. Here is another flower Wednesday. Enjoy!